Scheme opponents fear it will "dewater" the Morgan Gorge. Photo: Kennedy Warne
Federated Mountain Clubs has launched a last-minute bid to halt a controversial West Coast hydro scheme, claiming lines company Westpower has knowingly submitted false information to the fast-track panel.
The $100 million scheme - located between Hokitika and Franz Josef Glacier - on the remote Waitaha River on conservation land, proposed using a weir to divert water through a tunnel to generate 23 megawatts of hydroelectric power, enough to power the equivalent of about 12,000 homes, according to Westpower.
The scheme was rejected in 2019, when then-Environment Minister David Parker vetoed it under the Conservation Act, after he found it posed too much of a threat to the natural character and intrinsic value of the near-pristine area and people's experience of it.
At the time, the National Party vowed to "get the Waitaha power scheme on", if re-elected.
The project was resurrected under the Fast Track Approvals Act, as one of the 149 priority projects listed in the legislation itself.
Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC) has called on panel convenor Jane Borthwick to reject the application, unless she can verify the contents of a report on the recreational effects of the scheme, which it said contained false and misleading information.
Club president Megan Dimozantos has written to Borthwick, raising perceived inaccuracies, as well as concerns over what it calls abuse of the consultation process, doubts over the company's independence from the expert contracted to write the report and the addition of a peer review written more than a decade ago, without the knowledge of the review's author.
The fast-track law does not allow expert panels to give public or limited notification about consent applications, and only specific people or groups the panel invites can give submissions. FMC was not one of those groups.
Federated Mountain Clubs president Megan Dimozantos. Photo: Supplied / FMC
Dimozantos said this was one of the flaws with the process, which has left them urging others, like the New Zealand Conservation Authority, West Coast Conservation Board and the Department of Conservation, to pass their concerns on to decision-makers.
"Once the project is accepted into that process, there's very little opportunity to influence it, so even though we know these factual inaccuracies exist, all we can do is send them to people and organisations we think might have some say during the process," she said. "We've got no guarantee that those concerns will be raised."
The Waitaha is known as the 'Mt Cook of Rivers' and revered by kayakers the world over, but opponents say the scheme will "dewater" one of the most spectacular stretches of the rive - the Morgan Gorge.
"At the moment, the Waitaha is a beautiful river that flows uninterrupted from its headwaters to the ocean, and this is going to dewater probably its most beautiful part of that river, the Morgan Gorge."
While a residual flow would remain, the Gorge's recreational and aesthetic utility would be hugely diminished, and would the leave the river more susceptible to algae and other threats.
In his 2019 decision, Parker described the Gorge's grandeur as awe-inspiring, and said the project would significantly change the recreational experience and diminish the intrinsic value of the "near pristine" area.
Former Environment Minister David Parker vetoed the scheme in 2019, under the Conservation Act. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
FMC said, despite repeated requests, the company refused to put it in touch with the consultant commissioned to write the Recreational Effects Report, instead liaising with the club itself, which FMC said called into question the independence of the report.
When FMC attempted to provide consultant Rob Greenaway with feedback on the draft, including what it claimed were a string of errors and factual inaccuracies, the company said he was "on vacation" and would not have time to consider the comments before the final application was lodged.
The report Westpower submitted said it consulted with FMC, which FMC rejected.
"This situation appears to have been engineered by Westpower calling for our comments immediately before Mr Greenaway... took a long holiday," the organsation said in the letter to fast-track panel convenor Jane Borthwick.
"We're also aware of two other organisations that are on the list in Westpower's application as having been consulted. We spoke to those two organisations... and they said that, no, they haven't been consulted.
"The only time Westpower has spoken to their organisation was back in 2008, when they did the original interviews."
FMC said the final report was essentially identical to the draft, which meant Westpower had knowingly submitting false information on recreational effects.
Some of those alleged inaccuracies included misrepresentation of public access to the Waitaha Valley, references to improvements to access arising from the scheme - which FMC said Westpower had confirmed elsewhere would not eventuate - concerns around the inclusion of a "peer review" from 2014, suggestions of financial benefit for Permolat (a volunteer group that maintained remote huts and tracks), Backcountry Trusts and even FMC, which it said all three groups had no knowledge of, and the report's overall assessment of the scheme's effect on the West Coast kayaking community as low.
"These aren't minor errors - they distort how the recreational impacts are being assessed and, despite every opportunity being given to them to correct these inaccuracies, they've proceeded, knowing they're providing inaccurate information to the expert panel."
"It does beg the question of how many other reports within that application have just had a few sentences changed and a new date slapped on them?", she said.
The company's approach showed "contempt for the process, contempt for the panel and contempt for the public," Dimozantos said.
"Do we really want that sort of business operating on our fragile conservation estate?"
The Waitaha River at Kiwi Flat. Photo: Supplied / Copyright: Neil Silverwood
FMC had asked the panel to correct the errors, ideally by convening a hearing with FMC and others, or to reject the application, if the inaccuracies could not be remedied.
The integrity of the fast-track process was at stake, she claimed.
It appeared Westpower "simply expect their project to be rubber stamped, and perhaps just supplying bits of paper and documents regardless of their content is the only requirement?
"We're about to see whether the Fast Track Approvals Act really does apply scrutiny."
Westpower declined to comment on the claims.
"Westpower's substantive fast-track application is now formally being processed for acceptance through the fast-track system," it said. "It is therefore not appropriate for Westpower to respond to specific matters.
"However, Westpower has and will continue to discuss matters of interest in relation to the scheme with FMC," said chief executive Peter Armstrong.
A fast-track spokesperson said a panel had not yet been appointed to consider the Waitaha Hydro substantive application.
The fast-track team was currently checking the application for "competing applications or existing resource consents for the same activity".
If none were found, it would pass the application to the convenor, who would appoint a panel to consider the application.
Panels had "a range of functions and powers", and could hold hearings, request or commission reports or advice, and invite comments, the spokesperson said.
The Ministry for the Environment has previously confirmed it was not responsible for checking the accuracy of information in applications, only "completeness and eligibility".
"The risk in providing inaccurate information sits with the applicant," a ministry spokesman said. "This is in line with other available consenting processes."
FMC had legal advice confirming its position on access to the Waitaha Valley, but had yet to seek advice on what options - if any - it had, if the panel accepted the application in its current form, Dimozantos said.
"We have to hope the fast-track expert panel will look at that application with a fine-tooth comb, and decide that the inaccuracies make a material effect to the application and decline it. If that doesn't happen, we'll be considering our options."
In June, kayaking advocacy group Whitewater NZ, which had previously opposed the project, signed an agreement to take a "neutral stance". On its website, Whitewater NZ called the move "an incredibly difficult decision", but said it reflected its "commitment to being both principled and strategic" in protecting recreational access, given what it saw as the inevitability of the project getting fast-track approval.
In exchange for dropping its opposition, the agreement guaranteed four "no-take" days a year, chosen by Whitewater NZ, input into the design of the weir river safety infrastructure, the provision of real time river flow data and annual funding.
The project had the longstanding support of local rūnanga, Ngāti Makaawhio and Ngāti Waewae. Known collectively as Poutini Ngāi Tahu, the rūnanga wrote to the government in 2024 urging the project's inclusion for fast-tracking, and had entered into a partnership agreement with Westpower.
Forest & Bird maintained its longstanding opposition to the scheme, which it said affected dozens of native bird species, including kea, kākā and kārearea, plus long-tailed bats, and forest and green geckos.
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